by Trevor Davis | May 10, 2013 | Uncategorized
Declining Deficit Quiets Grand Bargain Talk Shrinking deficit reduces pressure for "grand bargain." WSJ: "...thanks to the improved fiscal picture, analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and other firms believe the Treasury Department can maneuver until September or...
by Terrance Heath | May 10, 2013 | Uncategorized
I told you so. When minimum wage workers in Chicago, IL went on strike, I said that the movement to raise the minimum wage would not go away. When fast food workers in St. Louis, MO walked off the job, demanding better pay and better treatment, I predicted that the...
by Thom Hartmann | May 10, 2013 | Uncategorized
Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held the first of many hearings on comprehensive immigration reform. In the seven and a half hour hearing, senators debated 32 of the three hundred proposed amendments to the bill, and adopted 21 of the changes. The...
by Dave Johnson | May 10, 2013 | Uncategorized
President Obama has nominated five people to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Two are Republicans. All are waiting for confirmation by the Senate. Let your Senators know these nominees should be confirmed so the NLRB can get back to work. What Is The NLRB?...
by Digby | May 10, 2013 | Uncategorized
I had the privilege of hearing Dean Baker and Mark Weisbrot speak about austerity the other night and it was as fascinating as you might imagine. I think most people who read this blog wouldn't be surprised by what they said, but I think many in the audience were...
by Daniel Marans | May 10, 2013 | Uncategorized
The research discrediting the Reinhart-Rogoff study is upending the economic policy discussion everywhere. Everywhere, apparently, except for HBO's new series "Vice," which recently featured Kenneth Rogoff as an expert on austerity. Episode 4 of "Vice" on HBO, "Love...
by Bill Scher | May 10, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: "60 Minutes" And America’s Billionaires Want Us to Beg OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "'60 Minutes' was once a shining light of independent journalism. Now it’s a covert mouthpiece for the far-right, anti-government values of the Peterson crowd. Once...
by Richard Eskow | May 10, 2013 | Uncategorized
If you're a jobless person looking for food or a wounded vet who needs health care, "60 Minutes" has a solution: Beg a billionaire for it. That was part of the powerful, if covert, message behind last Sunday's "60 Minutes" broadcast. The rest of Sunday night's...
by Isaiah J. Poole | May 9, 2013 | Climate
Right-wing obstructionism reached another low today when Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee would not even show up to vote today on the nomination of Gina McCarthy to be director of the Environmental Protection Agency. The spectacle was...
by Terrance Heath | May 9, 2013 | Uncategorized
It started in New York City, and last month it happened again in Chicago. Today, the movement for decent wages is taking another big step forward in St. Louis, Mo., where hundreds of fast food workers will rally for better wages. Fast food workers, most of which are...
by Bill Scher | May 9, 2013 | Uncategorized
Earlier this week, I noted that the Republican plan to take the debt limit hostage to demand unspecified tax reform at a future date was too ridiculous to be believed. But that battle plan looks like the Invasion of Normandy compared to the latest Keystone Kops scheme...
by Dave Johnson | May 9, 2013 | Making it in America
President Obama is in Texas to launch a "Middle-Class Jobs and Opportunity Tour" that focuses on manufacturing. The president announced an executive order creating three "manufacturing hubs" -- Manufacturing Innovation Institutes -- with $200 million from the...
by Dave Johnson | May 9, 2013 | Making it in America
We give away our jobs and factories and industries to China. Some geniuses apparently thought that meant we should also let our military security be contracted out to China as well. A new report from the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), Remaking American...
by Dave Johnson | May 8, 2013 | Uncategorized
Republicans are refusing to do their part in governing the country. They say "do it our way or we won't let anything get done at all." Their agenda is all ideology, all the time (and of course helping the wealthy). As a result We the People are on our own. We get no...
by Trevor Davis | May 8, 2013 | Uncategorized
Deficit Down Budget deficit slashed after "fiscal cliff" tax deal. CNN: "The annual deficit has fallen 32% over the first seven months of this fiscal year compared with same period last year, according to Congressional Budget Office figures ... Tax collections rose by...
by Isaiah J. Poole | May 8, 2013 | Blog, Rick Perlstein
Rick Perlstein, a former writer for the Campaign for America's Future who now writes for The Nation, has a detailed and deeply troubling two-part examination (Part I and Part II) of President Obama's nominee to be Commerce secretary, Penny Pritzker. We interviewed...
by Dave Johnson | May 8, 2013 | Blog
Here comes a surprise. Who is the country's biggest creator of low-wage jobs? Watch this video to see. From Good Jobs Nation: [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmjOTwIbyb4[/youtube] Our economy is shifting from good-paying middle-class jobs to low-wage jobs....
by Richard Eskow | May 8, 2013 | Uncategorized
At least three senators up for re-election in Republican-leaning states next year are defying President Obama by indicating they’ll refuse to support the White House’s Social Security cuts in any “Grand Bargain” on the budget. There are a number of reasons why this is...
by Bill Scher | May 8, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Stop High Stakes "Common Core" Testing OurFuture.org's Jeff Bryant: "Ratcheting education standards ever higher at the same time we cut supports that schools and students need to reach those standards never made any sense to begin with. And the value...
by Jeff Bryant | May 8, 2013 | Education
By now it's become clear to anyone willing to pay attention that our nation's obsession over education standards and testing has gotten out of hand. Ratcheting education standards ever higher at the same time we cut supports that schools and students need to reach...
by Robert Borosage | May 7, 2013 | Uncategorized
The Senate campaign in Massachusetts will be close and hard fought. Ed Markey, the winner of the Democratic primary, knows he has to run a bare-knuckled, knock down, full bore campaign to win. So it is notable that one of the first appeals to his supporters is to...
by Leo Gerard | May 7, 2013 | Uncategorized
A century ago, workers were a lot more “flexible” than they are now. Veritable Gumbies in the mills and mines and factories they were, distorting their lives to slog 10 or 12 hours a day, six – even seven – days a week. Then came the 40-hour week. And weekends. And...
by Robert Borosage | May 7, 2013 | The Jobs Challenge
This week, President Obama will travel to Austin, Texas to call for action on jobs. The proposals the president put forth in his State of the Union address – investing in infrastructure, expanding preschool, bolstering manufacturing assistance centers, raising the...
by Terrance Heath | May 7, 2013 | Uncategorized
If, like me, you're a working parent or any other adult struggling to balance the demands of work and family, you know the two biggest challenges to pulling off that balancing act: Time and Money. We never have enough of either, and have precious little control over...
by Richard Eskow | May 6, 2013 | Uncategorized
This Sunday’s episode of 60 Minutes was a brilliant case study in the media’s ability to manipulate the public mind. The entire hour is worth studying, if only as one of the most illuminating and sophisticated examples of media manipulation in recent memory. Who,...
by Trevor Davis | May 6, 2013 | Uncategorized
Europe (Not) Giving Up Austerity French declare end to "austerity dogma." Reuters: "The European Commission on Friday gave France two more years to meet its budget deficit target because of the country's poor economic outlook within the recession-hit euro zone. 'This...
by Bill Scher | May 6, 2013 | Uncategorized
According to the Washington Post and Politico, GOP leaders are laying the groundwork to refuse any debt limit increase this year, reneging on debt payments mandated by Congress, shredding the full faith and credit of the American government, thereby plunging the...
by Sam Pizzigati | May 6, 2013 | Blog
America's top corporate executives love lecturing the rest of us about 'fiscal responsibility.' They want us to expect less from government. But they expect more, and a new report shows how they're getting it. Last week, federal unemployment benefits for the 400,000...
by Richard Eskow | May 6, 2013 | Uncategorized
When historian Niall Ferguson made his offensive comments about John Maynard Keynes last week, he wasn't just revealing an ugly side of own nature. He was defending his authoritarian and economically punitive ideology not only against its opponents, but against...
by Bill Scher | May 6, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: The Democratic Dilemma: It’s Still the Economy OurFuture.org's Robert Borosage: "... for all of the Republican disarray, Democrats are in trouble. The bi-elections in 2014 come in the president’s sixth year in office. The economy and jobs will be the...
by Robert Borosage | May 6, 2013 | Blog
Democrats are enjoying the spectacle of Republican disarray. All of Washington is sinking in popularity, but Republicans rank lowest in public esteem. The old right-wing wedge issues – guns, gays, racial division, the war on women – now bolster Democrats rather than...
by Dave Johnson | May 5, 2013 | Uncategorized
Cutting Meals On Wheels doesn't save the government a dime, it costs $489 million a year. Cutting IRS obviously increases the deficit because it lowers tax revenue. Other cuts also increase spending. All obviously hurt the economy. Tell me again, what's the...
by Isaiah J. Poole | May 3, 2013 | Uncategorized
The scheme that Apple cooked up this week to finance a $55 billion stock buyback for its shareholders was orchestrated to avoid paying $9.2 billion in taxes, Bloomberg reported Friday. That $9.2 billion tax bill that Apple dodged would have been enough to make...
by Dave Johnson | May 3, 2013 | Uncategorized
President Obama set a goal of 1 million new manufacturing jobs in his second term. Last month we added zero. Not one. Nada. Zip. We did add low-wage jobs, though. Maybe we can talk about a national manufacturing strategy now? A Million Manufacturing Jobs? In the 2012...
by Richard Eskow | May 3, 2013 | Uncategorized
News reports tell us that more than 500 people have now died and more than 2,500 were injured in Savar, Bangladesh, while the toll in West, Texas stands at 15 dead and over 200 injured. Behind these two disasters is a common thread of greed - and a common need for...
by Robert Borosage | May 3, 2013 | Uncategorized
The April jobs report of the Bureau of Labor Services is sobering. The mediocre jobs number -- 165,000 new jobs or barely enough to cover new entrants into workforce -- is a self-inflicted wound. Government austerity -- tax hikes and spending cuts -- is suffocating...
by Dave Johnson | May 2, 2013 | Uncategorized
Republicans continually drone on about how "government spending" is so bad... Infrastructure, medical research, education, law enforcement... bad ... "out of control" ... "take money out of the economy" ... etc. And so because we have to do something about "out of...
by Bill Scher | May 2, 2013 | Uncategorized
Fix The Debt is a coalition of corporations pushing for a "grand bargain" that would reduce debt by changing Social Security, Medicare and the tax code. Oddly, the coalition spends more time talking about what other people should give up -- namely, Social Security...
by Terrance Heath | May 2, 2013 | Uncategorized
Adam Lanza. James Holmes. Jared Lee Loughner. Seung-Hui Cho. These names instantly bring to mind some of the worse mass shooting massacres of the last decade or so. But they have something else in common. In addition to reviving calls for stronger gun control...
by Digby | May 2, 2013 | Uncategorized
President Obama's nomination of Hyatt heiress Penny Pritzker to be Commerce secretary gives me the perfect excuse to write about a fascinating conversation I had recently with Cathy Youngblood, a union activist and Hyatt employee who is on a campaign to get her...
